Do you still prefer your CD player to other sources?

[eggontoast]

I don't need to come out with it, when not coming out with it works so well.

Now, is it MP3? FLAC? Cassette? 8 Track? Hiring the bands to come and sing the songs live in your front room? I'm very interested to know.

We'll it is the 21st century and I do like the best audio reproduction possible, so what do you think :wall:

 

[BIGBERNARDBRESSLAW]

I don't need to come out with it, when not coming out with it works so well.

Now, is it MP3? FLAC? Cassette? 8 Track? Hiring the bands to come and sing the songs live in your front room? I'm very interested to know.

We'll it is the 21st century and I do like the best audio reproduction possible, so what do you think :wall:

F*ck me! You're a vinyl fan after all.

 

[cannibal_ox77]

I'm looking to add a Marantz NA7004 to my setup for the convenience of Airplay as I've got music stored on loads of devices, but I'm sure i'll still put a CD on for a serious listening session.

Think I'll need a better cd player to outperform the network player & lossless files, should have a superior dac to the UD5007.

 

[floyd droid]

We'll it is the 21st century and I do like the best audio reproduction possible, so what do you think :wall:

F*ck me! You're a vinyl fan after all.

Pmsl. :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

 

[SiUK]

@cannibal_ox77

I have a UD5007 and it is absolutely atrocious for audio cd playback. Really horrible. Couldn't quite believe how bad it was actually. Tried it hooked up to a NR1504 first and it was appalling (that AV amp is definitely not a good choice for stereo playback either). Then I hooked it up to a Marantz M-CR610 with AQ Emerald interconnects and it was still horrible compared to the M-CR610's own CD transport . Made a similar pigs ear of the music hooked up to a Cyrus Two/PSX. I reckon almost any budget standalone CD player would trounce the UD5007!

 

[chebby]

I don't need to come out with it, when not coming out with it works so well.

Now, is it MP3? FLAC? Cassette? 8 Track? Hiring the bands to come and sing the songs live in your front room? I'm very interested to know.

We'll it is the 21st century and I do like the best audio reproduction possible, so what do you think :wall:

Given the 'sneaky' pun earlier I assumed a Linn Sneaky.

 

[chrisr1718]

 

[chrisr1718]

Often think about upgrading my player but my £40 Marantz CD6000OSE is serving me fine for now.

You got a 6000OSE for £40? Wow.

If it still works fine, I would say there's no point in upgrading- it's a great player!

Proof that bargains can still be found on eBay, was incorrectly listed and very badly photographed. Took a punt and got a winner.

I got my 6000 OSE LE on ebay for about £50, maybe £60, a few years ago. Think about upgrading but it still sounds great played through a Cyrus2, +PSX, and a pair of Tannoys floor standers. And to get a noticeable improvement I think I'd have to spend more money than I'd be allowed to.

 

[MajorFubar]

Ooo another classic Cyrus user. If any more turn up I think we should start a club.

 

[ISAC69]

Actually I'm torn between CD and FLAC downloads.

I have quite a large CD collection, and storage has been an issue, though to be honest I don't buy as much music as I once did, I guess I've reached the age where contemporary music doesn't interest me as much as when I was 20 or 30 years younger and have amassed quite a sizeable collection of Classical CD's that span the repertoire I'm intersted in.

Any music I now buy tends to be in FLAC format from The Classical Shop generally on their 50% off offer or as part of my subscription to B&W's Society of Sound. I play the FLACs via an external hard drive connected to my NP30 rather than mess with streaming and as far as I'm concerned the sound quality from FLAC is as good as CD though as I'm in my 50's my hearing probably isn't as acute as it used to be.

There is a great convenience factor in using the NP30 but the main advantage is in the saving of storage space which outweighs the faffing around of backing up etc, though with the Classical Shop you are apparently able to re-download at any time, as long as they stay in business of course.

Which do I really prefer? It has to be the physical disc everytime not so much for quality of sound but it's so satisfying to hold a cd, see the artwork, and read the booklet and know it's mine, rather than a set of files on a hard drive.

I also have my pre-cd collection of vinyl, that still gets an airing now and then, but I wouldn't buy any new vinyl. The thing that really used to p me off about vinyl was the crap quality, crackling, popping, warped records etc. I used to be a real pain returning records that weren't perfect but would often find the same fault in the replacements, I actually couldn't wait to get my hands on a cd player when they came out and just stopped buying vinyl. I remember my first CD purchase was Avalon by Roxy Music....ah nostalgia!

I think the Vinyl sounds better than CD but as you said all the crap quality, crackling, popping, warped LPs convinced me to abandon my glorious Vinyl collection but I do enjoy to listen to CDs it's more practical and accessible . I did try to listen to music files through my external hard drive and a DAC and it was crappy .

 

[mogsie]

cd's all the time for me, not only because i only have a cd player and an amp ! but when i buy something i like to purchase something material, also i like the fact that when searching through my cd collection looking for a certain album i often spot another album i havent listned to for god knows how long and listen to that instead, so it helps keep my music varied, which i imagine wouldnt happen if i was scrolling through a digital playlist !

 

[SiUK]

Well all the hype about CD being dead or on the verge of dying is just bunkum. You could be forgiven for thinking that theres a campaign to kill it off. But whilst it accounts for approx 70% of all music sales (I read that somewhere, sorry no link) I hardly think it is gonna die out any time soon.

Like many here I like the physical media when I purchase. In fact I've been buying more second hand CDs lately as well (more than usual) as I treated myself to one of those (overpriced) boxes that 'repairs' CDs a short while ago. Effective on most scratch damaged discs I've found. Messy, finincky business though. But as I can now buy a load of scratched discs anywhere from 1p to £1.00 and restore them to state so that they can ripped to a bit perfect copy and played it's worth the faff. Most unrepairable discs I've had have been due to manufacturing flaws rather than scratches. Shame they aren't as hard to scratch as blu-ray discs.

Anyway, CDs....yayyyyy!

 

[toyota man]

Ripped al my cds to my mackbook in lossless and then onto my ipod classics for my cars + van but realy only liten to cds at home unless I am in the lounge and then I might streem to my surround system I do not realy miss vinyl keeping it clean etc but I do miss the Artwork which isn't quite the same on cds but to answer the question Yes I still use my cdp as a matter of fact I am thinking of upgrading toa Leema Antila

 

[John Duncan]

No.

 

[MajorFubar]

You could be forgiven for thinking that theres a campaign to kill it off.

There is sort of. Well, depending on your point of view. I've read elsewhere that MP3s and downloads aren't as profitable per sale as CDs, so there's no agenda to kill-off physical formats. But frankly I find that conclusion difficult to believe, even accepting the overheads of data-storage and effective electronic distribution.

 

[matt49]

Not since it broke down and I went over to Sonos.

Might try to fix it one day, but not sure if I can be bothered.

Still like buying the shiny disks though. They rip nicely.

 

[matt49]

I've read elsewhere that MP3s and downloads aren't as profitable per sale as CDs, so there's no agenda to kill-off physical formats.

I wouldn't know about that. In book publishing, which is similar in some ways (legacy physical medium versus new downloaded media), the publishers will try to keep all media going for as long as they can.

It's all about "tranching down". Since the eighteenth century, book publishers have had a range of media: first it was large-format books on nice paper as against small crappy formats. Now it's hardbacks and softbacks. The hardback version, which sells at a big premium compared to the softback but in much smaller quantities, is released first. This squeezes a big margin out of the wealthier customers who're keen to be early adopters or to own the premium product. The cheaper softback is released a few months later: lower margins but higher volumes. The idea is to get as many sales of the tranche of higher-margin hardbacks as you can before releasing the tranche of lower-margin softbacks. Hence "tranching down".

E-books are marketed in a similar way, as premium products and at massively inflated margins (virtually no production costs!), to early-adopting wealthy customers who own an expensive e-book reader. This is why e-books tend to come out before softbacks.

You'd have expected the music companies to do the same: i.e. to sell the downloaded product to early adopters at a big margin (no production costs!) and then to tranche down to lower-margin media. The problem is that the music companies lost control of the download market to Apple right at the outset. Downloads were sold too cheap for the tranching down model to work (for the benefit of the music companies at least). Pirating obviously didn't help. Consumers got used to this relatively cheap (or free, pirated) downloaded product, and ever since then the music companies have been struggling to catch up.

 

[Rethep]

No, for a long time already! Finally sold my CD-player in the first half of the year. I even find varied music enough when i am flipping through my music on "Remote"-app. It is almost the same as flipping through your CD's. The only difference is that music has no real fysical place, so you should remember "song", "album", "bandnames", "genre". But with part-info you can even use the "Find"-function. Happy!

 

[danrv]

Sticking with CD here. Invested in a Roksan Kandy K2 amp and CD player just over a year ago. Sounds awesome.
I can see the convenience of having your whole music collection digitally stored on one device or streaming it
but don't know of anything that would equal or better the K2 combo SQ.
Maybe the Audiolab M-Dac using a lossless format.
Also don't want to have to turn on a PC or laptop everytime I want to listen.

 

[DIB]

If push comes to shove my preferred medium of choice is CD. I have every CD I have ever owned ripped to FLAC on my PC, and yet I still enjoy listening to my CDs on my Evo 2 best. If I had every LP I own on CD then vinyl would definitely be a thing of the past for me.

.

 

[DIB]

Duplicate post

.

 

[seasiders rock]

I have a choice of Vinyl, Streaming, SBT and 2 CDP in the rack.

Both Audio Analogue, both used , as is all my kit.

A Maestro Digital Audio Processor and a Rossini, which are used daily.

The Maestro can also be used as a stand alone DAC and does improve on the internal SBT Dac.

With CD,S available for pennys ( i rarely buy new) there is now give our take about 1500 in the living room, it does help having an understanding other half.

 

[andyjm]

Well all the hype about CD being dead or on the verge of dying is just bunkum. You could be forgiven for thinking that theres a campaign to kill it off. But whilst it accounts for approx 70% of all music sales (I read that somewhere, sorry no link) I hardly think it is gonna die out any time soon.

http://www.standard.co.uk/business/business-news/music-downloads-soar-as-cd-sales-continue-to-plunge-8435454.html

Downloads are typically single tracks, CDs typically albums, so I am not sure how this report defines 'album sales', I will try to find the source data. While SiUK is right about the % of sales (according to this study), I am afraid the trend looks very unhealthy for CDs.

Edit: A different set of numbers from the BBC. Below 50% according to their study. I think the difference is looking at all downloads, not just albums.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-18278037

 

[NSA_watch_my_toilet]

I still prefere my CD player to other sources. It takes 3 seconds to switch on, it takes 3 seconds to load, and 2 seconds to play the music you asked for. In the last time, I'm using a turntable too, but it's more for older music.

I didn't found a cheap DAC for the moment that was able to do the same as my Accuphase DP-500. Yes... ok, I found a Weiss DAC, but he's far away from beeing cheap, so I didn't bought it. The day I will, I will probably reconsider this question.

 

[NSA_watch_my_toilet]

I still prefere my CD player to other sources. It takes 3 seconds to switch on, it takes 3 seconds to load, and 2 seconds to play the music you asked for. i didn't need to switch on a power hungry computer (400w or more), I don't have the risk of a crash eating all my favourite music, I dont' have to worry about United States spying the hell out of my private life.

In the last time, I'm using a turntable too, but it's more for older music.

I didn't found a cheap DAC for the moment that was able to do the same as my Accuphase DP-500. Yes... ok, I found a Weiss DAC, but he's far away from beeing cheap, so I didn't bought it. The day I will, I will probably reconsider this question.